In my experience the little tadpoles quickly develop tiny legs and feet and leave the pond soon after they hatch, even if they still have a tail. And they're tiny - maybe just a 1/4 inch long at the most. They leave at night, too. They're also good climbers - my little toadlets used to scale a brick edging to leave my pond.

They also get caught in the pond filter - have you checked your filter for tadpoles?

Oh, I hope you are right! I just had no idea they could develop so quickly from the tadpole stage to toadlets! Now I will watch for them in the lawn & flower beds to see if they are there.

Thanks for the reassurence!

I have to watch where I step these days. Got dozens (and dozens!) hanging out in the shade beneath my hostas, ferns & elephant ears. Cute lil buggers. I'm sure yours are fine. Most will migrate but you'll know for sure how many decided to hang a 'home sweet home' sign come next spring. Trust me on that. Here's hopin you can be lulled to sleep to the tune of froggy/toad love songs *chuckle*

blessings,
~digger

Thanks for the ?encouragement! This is the second year that our old resident toad has met another toad (from where?) at our pond & made such a racket every night, laid eggs & tadpoles hatched; but neither last year or this year (so far!) have we ever seen any of the hatchling toadlets ,, anywhere. I did notice just before everything disappeared that some of th tadpoles had turned beige while the rest were still black ... was this a transition stage I wonder?

I did chec the filter when I cleaned it(just a home-made Skippy filter & quilt batting tucked around the submerged pump but couldn't see any trapped tadpoles in amongst the trapped algae, etc.!

Which is worse: the 'love songs' of the toads or the frogs? We are not near a body oif water so don't think we'dever have frogs in our yard ... the toads ae enough!

The toads have a sweet trill when they call altho it can be a bit much when you have 5 or 6 trilling at the same time.

The frogs will come.. we are over a mile from a lake and I have at least 15 frogs that have taken up year round residence at my 2 small ponds.

Oh, my gosh ...

there are big, black tadpoles in our rainbarrels now .... how in the world did they get in there? Too tall for toads to get in ... maybe dropped in them by some birds?!Friends joke that it must be some of the 'aliens' from Roswell, NM just south of us doing this!!

Friend said he saw a grackle pluck a mosquito-eating minnow out of his fish pond the other day ... bird flew off with the minnow wiggling in its beak!
Still waiting to find any 'toadlets'.....!

OK, now I see the black tadpoles that turn brown/tan are the ones beginning to turn into the tiny toads!! I fished one tan one (that was black a couple days ago!)out of the rain barrel & it was a tiny toad with the tail still intact! I place it in the strawberry patch & hope it finds enough to eat there.